It used to be that marketing was a kind of hit-and-hope outing where advertising campaigns and promotions were difficult to measure against incremental sales. Sure, big campaigns may see a rise in sales overall, but seeing exactly who touched base with what piece of advertising to convince them to make a purchase was very difficult to establish. With online sectors, like that of iGaming, it’s much easier to see where promos work and don’t work.
Now, conventional wisdom doesn’t need to be relied upon to see what works with customers. This is why the space of iGaming promotions has changed so much over the last couple of decades. It went from huge eye-catching deposit matches to free spins that lean into the most popular games. Then, with that area getting crowded, savvy platforms adjusted further, creating the age of no-deposit free spins and the like.
Free spins bonuses in all their forms are marketing for the platforms, so it’s important to explore exactly what the aim of each promo is as well as, for the players, where to true value lies in claiming one of these bonuses.
Working Free Spins Bonuses as the Core of a Marketing Campaign
Free spins bonuses are put up by online casinos because they think that the promotion will be appealing to the majority of players. This entirely boils down to online slot games being the most popular game type across iGaming by far. In some jurisdictions, the gross gaming revenue from slots makes up over 80 per cent of total GGR. So, it makes sense to offer players free time on the most popular games.
In doing this, the platforms can leverage the Four Ps of marketing. Those four key elements are product, price, place, and promotion. The product is free spins on a big-name slot or a collection of interesting-looking slots. The price will boil down to the deposit required or, in some cases, there won’t be a price at all with a no-deposit bonus. The place with be their platform, ad banners, emails, and other online sites, while the promotion goes to all would-be players for a welcome bonus looking for a new site or all existing players with a loyalty bonus scheme.
Assessing the True Value of Free Spins Bonuses
It can be difficult for customers to assess which of the many free spins bonuses is the most valuable to them due to the many elements that get tied into the promotion. Luckily, there is a way to calculate the real value of a free spins bonus by assessing a few main aspects. The first is its price. When it comes to no-deposit free spins bonuses, there’s naturally an advantage because of the lack of real money needed to enjoy the promotion.
After that, you’d look at the RTP percentage of the focus bonus slot. As an example, say you have two bonuses on sites you like the look of that both amount to 100 free spins on different games. Looking at the RTP percentages, one is 93.78 while the other is 95.22, making the second slot the preference for your 100 free spins bonus. You can also weigh jackpot potential into the equation.
A lot of jackpot games, particularly the big-hit progressive jackpots, have lower RTPs than your given online video slot. So, weighing in the potential prize that could be triggered by a free spin is worth doing. From there, it’s all about the terms and conditions. Assess the caps on winning withdrawals and especially the wagering requirements to see if the bonus could convert into any real money value or if it’ll more than likely just be a kind of demo run.
Free spins bonuses are marketing tools rather than charitable gifts to any player who happens to come by, but some do offer more value than others when you look closer at the intricacies of the promotion.
